The Chagos
ArchipelagoArchipelago (/ˈtʃɑːɡəs/ or /ˈtʃɑːɡəʊs/) Chagos
Islands (formerly the Bassas de Chagas,[2] and later the Oil Islands)
is a group of seven atolls comprising more than 60 individual tropical
islands in the
Indian OceanIndian Ocean about 500 kilometres (310 mi) south
of the
MaldivesMaldives archipelago. This chain of islands is the southernmost
archipelago of the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge, a long submarine mountain
range in the Indian Ocean.[3]
Officially part of the British
Indian OceanIndian Ocean Territory, the Chagos were
home to the Chagossians, a Bourbonnais Creole-speaking people, for
more than a century and a half until the
United KingdomUnited Kingdom evicted them
between 1967 and 1973 to allow the
United StatesUnited States to build a military
base on Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos Islands. Since 1971,
only the atoll of
Diego GarciaDiego Garcia is inhabited, and only by military and
civilian contracted personnel.
The sovereignty of the Chagos
ArchipelagoArchipelago is being disputed between
the UK and Mauritius. The
United KingdomUnited Kingdom excised the archipelago from
Mauritian territory three years ahead of Mauritius'
independence.[4][5]

Contents

1 Geography

1.1 Resources
1.2 Climate

2 History

2.1 Early history
2.2 16th to 19th century
2.3 20th century
2.4 2000–present

The Chagos Archipelago.
(Atolls with areas of dry land are named in green)

The land area of the islands is 56.13 km2 (21.7 sq. miles), the
largest island, Diego Garcia, having an area of 32.5 km2. The
total area, including lagoons within atolls, is more than
15,000 km2, of which 12,642 km2 are accounted by the Great
Chagos Bank, the largest acknowledged atoll structure of the world
(the completely submerged
Saya de Malha BankSaya de Malha Bank is larger, but its status
as an atoll is uncertain). The shelf area is 20,607 km2, and the
Exclusive Economic Zone, which borders the corresponding zone of the
Maldive Islands in the north, has an area of 639,611 km2
(including territorial waters).
The Chagos group is a combination of different coralline rock
structures topping a submarine ridge running southwards across the
centre of the Indian Ocean, formed by volcanoes above the Réunion
hotspot. Unlike the Maldives, there is no clearly discernible pattern
in the atoll arrangement, which makes the whole archipelago look
somewhat chaotic. Most of the coralline structures of the Chagos are
submerged reefs.
The Chagos contain the world's largest coral atoll, The Great Chagos
Bank, which supports half the total area of good quality reefs in the
Indian Ocean. As a result, the ecosystems of the Chagos have so far
proven resilient to climate change and environmental disruptions.
The largest individual islands are
Diego GarciaDiego Garcia (32.5 km2), Eagle
(Great Chagos Bank, 3.1 km2), Île Pierre (Peros Banhos,
1.40 km2), Eastern Egmont (Egmont Islands, 2.17 km2), Île
du Coin (Peros Banhos, 1.32 km2) and Île Boddam (Salomon
Islands, 1.27 km2).
In addition to the seven atolls with dry land reaching at least the
high-water mark, there are nine reefs and banks, most of which can be
considered permanently submerged atoll structures. The number of
atolls in the Chagos
ArchipelagoArchipelago is given as four or five in most
sources, plus two island groups and two single islands, mainly because
it is not recognised that the
Great Chagos BankGreat Chagos Bank is a huge atoll
structure (including those two island groups and two single islands),
and because Blenheim Reef, which has islets or cays above or just
reaching the high-water mark, is not included. Features are listed in
the table from north to south:

Map this section's coordinates using:
OpenStreetMap · Google Maps

Download coordinates as: KML · GPX

Atoll/Reef/Bank
(alternate name)
type
Area (km2)
number
of islands
Location

The main natural resources of the area are coconuts and fish. The
licensing of commercial fishing used to provide an annual income of
about two million dollars for the British
Indian OceanIndian Ocean Territory
authorities, however licenses have not been given since October 2010,
when the last one expired after the creation of the no-take marine
reserve.[6]
All economic activity is concentrated on the largest island of Diego
Garcia, where joint UK-US military facilities are located.
Construction projects and various services needed to support the
military installations are done by military and contract employees
from the UK, Mauritius, the Philippines, and the US. There are
currently no industrial or agricultural activities on the islands. All
the water, food and other essentials of daily life are shipped to the
island. An independent feasibility study led to the conclusion that
resettlement would be "costly and precarious". Another feasibility
study, commissioned by organisations supporting resettlement, found
that resettlement would be possible at a cost to the British taxpayer
of £25 million. If the
ChagossiansChagossians return, they plan to re-establish
copra production and fishing, and to begin the commercial development
of the islands for tourism.
Until October 2010, Skipjack (Euthynnus pelamis) and yellowfin tuna
(Thunnus albacares) were fished for about two months of the year as
their year-long migratory route takes them through Chagos waters.
While the remoteness of the Chagos offers some protection from
extractive activities, legal and illegal fishing have had an impact.
There is considerable poaching of turtles and other marine life.
Sharks, which play a vital role in balancing the food web of tropical
reefs, have suffered sharp declines from illegal fishing for their
fins and as bycatch in legal fisheries. Sea cucumbers, which cleanse
sand, are poached to feed Asian markets.
Climate[edit]
The Chagos
ArchipelagoArchipelago has a tropical oceanic climate; hot and humid
but moderated by trade winds. Climate is characterised by plenty of
sunshine, warm temperatures, showers and light breezes. December
through February is considered the rainy season (summer monsoon);
typical weather conditions include light west-northwesterly winds and
warmer temperatures with more rainfall. June to September is
considered the drier season (winter), characterised by moderate
south-easterly winds, slightly cooler temperatures and less rainfall.
The annual mean rainfall is 2600 mm (100 inches), varying
from 105 mm (4 inches) during August to 350 mm
(14 inches) during January.
History[edit]

The Chagos as Bassas de Chagas on 1794 Samuel Dunn map section

Early history[edit]
According to Southern Maldivian oral tradition, local traders and
fishermen were occasionally lost at sea and got stranded in one of the
islands of the Chagos. Eventually they were rescued and brought back
home.[7] However, these islands were judged to be too far away from
the
MaldivesMaldives to be settled permanently by Maldivians. Thus for many
centuries the Chagos were ignored by their northern neighbours.
In Maldivian lore the whole group is known as Fōlhavahi or Hollhavai
(the latter name in the Southern
MaldivesMaldives Adduan dialect of Dhivehi).
There are no separate names for the different atolls of the Chagos in
the Maldivian oral tradition.[8]
16th to 19th century[edit]
Portuguese explorers were the first Europeans to discover the
archipelago. Although Portuguese navigator Pedro de Mascarenhas (1470
– 23 June 1555) is credited with having discovered the islands
during his voyage of 1512–13, there is little corroborative evidence
for this; cartographic analysis points to 1532 or later. Portuguese
seafarers named the group as Bassas de Chagas,[9] Portuguese: Chagas
(wounds) referring to the
Holy WoundsHoly Wounds of the crucifixion of Jesus.
They named as well some of the atolls, such as
Diego GarciaDiego Garcia and Peros
Banhos Atoll, mentioned as Pedro dos Banhos in 1513 by Afonso de
Albuquerque.[10] Neglected by the Portuguese, this lonely and isolated
group, economically and politically uninteresting, was never made part
of the Portuguese Empire.[11]
The earliest and most interesting description of the Chagos, before
coconut trees grew widely on the islands, was written by Manoel
Rangel, a castaway from the Portuguese ship Conceição which ran
aground on the
Peros BanhosPeros Banhos reefs in 1556.[12]
The French were the first to lay a claim on the Chagos after they
settled
RéunionRéunion (in 1665) and Isle de
FranceFrance (now Mauritius, in
1715). The French began issuing permits for companies to establish
coconut oil plantations on the Chagos in the 1770s.[13]
On 27 April 1786 the Chagos Islands and
Diego GarciaDiego Garcia were claimed for
Great Britain. However, the territory was ceded to Britain by treaty
only after Napoleon's defeat, in 1814. The Chagos were governed from
Mauritius, which was by that time also a British colony.[14]
In 1793, when the first successful colony was founded on Diego Garcia,
the largest island, coconut plantations were established on many of
the atolls and isolated islands of the archipelago. Initially the
workers were slaves, but after 1840 they were freemen, many of whom
were descended from those earlier slaves. They formed an inter-island
culture called
IloisIlois (a French Creole word meaning Islanders).
Commander
Robert MoresbyRobert Moresby made a survey of the Chagos on behalf of the
British AdmiraltyBritish Admiralty in 1838. After Moresby took measurements of most of
the atolls and reefs, the archipelago was charted with relative
accuracy for the first time.[15]
20th century[edit]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help
improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources.
Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2016)
(Learn how and when to remove this template message)

On 31 August 1903 the Chagos
ArchipelagoArchipelago was administratively
separated from the
SeychellesSeychelles and attached to Mauritius.[16]
In November 1965, the UK purchased the entire Chagos
ArchipelagoArchipelago from
the then self-governing colony of
MauritiusMauritius for £3 million to create
the
British Indian Ocean TerritoryBritish Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT),[17] with the intent of
ultimately closing the plantations to provide the British territory
from which the
United StatesUnited States would conduct its military activities in
the region. On 30 December 1966, the
United StatesUnited States and the United
Kingdom executed an agreement through an Exchange of Notes which
permit the
United StatesUnited States Armed Forces to use any island of the BIOT
for defence purposes for 50 years, until December 2016,[17] followed
by a 20-year optional extension (to 2036) to which both parties must
agree by December 2014. As of 2010[update], only the atoll of Diego
Garcia has been transformed into a military facility.
In 1967 the British Government bought the entire assets and real
property of the
SeychelloisSeychellois Chagos Agalega Company,[18] which owned
all the islands of the BIOT,[19] for £660,000[20] and administered
them as a government enterprise while awaiting US funding of its
proposed facilities, with an interim objective of paying for the
administrative expenses of the new territory. However, the
plantations, both under their previous private ownership and under
government administration, proved consistently unprofitable due to the
introduction of new oils and lubricants in the international
marketplace, and the establishment of vast coconut plantations in the
East IndiesEast Indies and the Philippines.
Between 1967 and 1973, the entire population was removed against its
will from the islands and moved to
MauritiusMauritius and the
SeychellesSeychelles to
make way for a joint United States-
United KingdomUnited Kingdom military base on
Diego Garcia.[21] In March 1971, Seabees,
United StatesUnited States naval
construction battalions, arrived on
Diego GarciaDiego Garcia to begin the
construction of the Communications Station and an airfield. To satisfy
the terms of an agreement between the
United KingdomUnited Kingdom and the United
States for an uninhabited island, the plantation on
Diego GarciaDiego Garcia was
closed in October of that year.[22]
The plantation workers and their families were initially moved to the
plantations on
Peros BanhosPeros Banhos and Salomon atolls in the northwest of the
archipelago; those who requested were transported to the
SeychellesSeychelles or
Mauritius. In 1972, the
United KingdomUnited Kingdom decided to close all the
remaining plantations throughout the Chagos, and deported the
IloisIlois to
the
SeychellesSeychelles or Mauritius. The then-independent Mauritian government
refused to accept the islanders without payment, and in 1973, the
United KingdomUnited Kingdom gave the Mauritian government an additional £650,000
to resettle the islanders.[23] However, despite this islanders often
found themselves in woefully inadequate housing and living conditions.
2000–present[edit]
See also: Depopulation of
ChagossiansChagossians from the Chagos
ArchipelagoArchipelago and
UNROW Human Rights Impact Litigation Clinic § International
Human Rights: The Chagos Islanders

Flag of the Chagossian People

On 1 April 2010, the British government Cabinet established the Chagos
Marine Protected AreaMarine Protected Area as the world's largest marine reserve. At
640,000 km2, it is larger than
FranceFrance or the U.S. state of
California. It doubled the total area of environmental no-take zones
worldwide.[24] On 18 March 2015, the Permanent Court of Arbitration
unanimously held that the marine protected area (MPA) which the United
Kingdom declared around the Chagos
ArchipelagoArchipelago in April 2010 violates
international law. Anerood Jugnauth, Prime Minister of Mauritius,
pointed out that it is the first time that the United Kingdom's
conduct with regard to the Chagos
ArchipelagoArchipelago has been considered and
condemned by any international court or tribunal.
MauritiusMauritius initiated on 20 December 2010 proceedings against the United
Kingdom under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
(UNCLOS) to challenge the legality of the Chagos
ArchipelagoArchipelago MPA.
The issue of compensation and repatriation of the former inhabitants
of several of the archipelago's atolls, exiled since 1973, continues
in litigation and as of 23 August 2010[update] has been
submitted to the
European Court of Human RightsEuropean Court of Human Rights by a group of former
residents.[25]
Litigation continues as of 2012[update] regarding the right of return
for the displaced islanders and Mauritian sovereignty claims. In
addition, advocacy on the Chagossians' behalf continues both in the
United StatesUnited States and in Europe.
In November 2016, the
United KingdomUnited Kingdom restated it would not permit
ChagossiansChagossians to return to their homeland.[26]
SovereigntySovereignty dispute[edit]
Main article: Chagos
ArchipelagoArchipelago sovereignty dispute
The Chagos had been part of
MauritiusMauritius since the 18th century when the
French first settled the islands. All of the islands forming part of
the French colonial territory of Isle de
FranceFrance (as
MauritiusMauritius was then
known) were ceded to the British in 1810 under the Act of Capitulation
signed between the two countries. In 1965, prior to Mauritian
independence, the UK split the archipelago from the territory of
MauritiusMauritius to form the British
Indian OceanIndian Ocean Territory.[4]
United Nations' resolutions banned the dismemberment of colonial
territories before independence.
MauritiusMauritius has repeatedly asserted
that the British claim that the Chagos
ArchipelagoArchipelago is one of its
territories is a violation of law and of UN resolutions. The United
Kingdom has stated that it has no doubt about its sovereignty over the
Chagos, but has also said that the Chagos will be returned to
MauritiusMauritius once the islands are no longer required for defence
purposes.[4]
The island nation of
MauritiusMauritius claims the Chagos
ArchipelagoArchipelago (which is
coterminous with the BIOT), including Diego Garcia. A subsidiary issue
is the Mauritian opposition to the 1 April 2010 UK Government's
declaration that the BIOT is a
Marine Protected AreaMarine Protected Area with fishing and
extractive industry (including oil and gas exploration)
prohibited.[27]
On November 16, 2016, the UK Foreign Office maintained their ban on
resettlement of the islands.[28] In response to this decision, the
Prime Minister of
MauritiusMauritius expressed his country's plan to advance
the sovereignty dispute to the International Court of Justice.[29] The
British Foreign Secretary
Boris JohnsonBoris Johnson has sought Indian assistance
for resolving the dispute involving the United Kingdom, the United
States and Mauritius. India has maintained considerable influence in
MauritiusMauritius through deep cultural and economic ties. While India has
maintained that the matter of whether or not to proceed with the UN
General Assembly move is a decision for the Mauritian government to
make.[30]
On 23 June 2017, the
United Nations General AssemblyUnited Nations General Assembly (UNGA) voted in
favour of referring the territorial dispute between
MauritiusMauritius and the
United KingdomUnited Kingdom to the
International Court of JusticeInternational Court of Justice (ICJ) in order to
clarify the legal status of the Chagos Islands archipelago in the
Indian Ocean. The motion was approved by a majority vote with 94
voting for and 15 against.[31][32]
Development[edit]
Structures on the islands are located in the joint defence and Naval
Support Facility Diego Garcia, although the
PlantationPlantation house and other
structures left behind by the
IloisIlois are still standing, however left
abandoned and decaying. Other uninhabited islands, especially in the
Salomon Atoll, are common stopping points for long-distance yachtsmen
travelling from
Southeast AsiaSoutheast Asia to the
Red SeaRed Sea or the coast of Africa,
although a permit is required to visit the outer islands.
People and language[edit]

A Chagossian, known as "Samson", photographed by a US National
Geodetic Survey team in 1969.

Former natives[edit]
See also: Depopulation of
ChagossiansChagossians from the Chagos Archipelago
The islanders were known as the
IloisIlois (one French Creole word for
"islanders") and they numbered about 1,000. They were of mixed
African, South Indian, Portuguese, English, French and Malay descent
and lived very simple, spartan lives in their isolated archipelago
working in the coconut and sugar plantations, or in the fishing and
small textile industries. Few remains of their culture have been left,
although their language is still spoken by some of their descendants
in Mauritius.
The inhabitants of Chagos were speaking Chagossian Creole, also known
as
IloisIlois creole, a French Creole which has not been properly
researched from the linguistic point of view.
The island names are a mixture of Dutch, French, English and Ilois
Creole.
The tribes that inhabited the islands were forcibly removed by the US
and British governments during the late 1960s and early 1970s -
effectively turning the islands into a military base. While a number
of islanders had petitioned for the return of their former homes,
their efforts have not been accepted by the US and UK legal
systems.[33] Outside of the US, the main island of
Diego GarciaDiego Garcia is the
world's largest military base.
Other[edit]
Diego GarciaDiego Garcia is currently the only inhabited island in the Chagos, all
of which comprise the British
Indian OceanIndian Ocean Territory, usually
abbreviated as "BIOT". It is an Overseas territory of the United
Kingdom, and the Government of the BIOT consists of Commissioner
appointed by the Queen. The Commissioner is assisted by an
Administrator and small staff, and is based in London and resident in
the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. This administration is
represented in the Territory by the Officer commanding British Forces
on Diego Garcia, the "Brit Rep". Laws and regulations are promulgated
by the Commissioner and enforced in the BIOT by Brit Rep.
There are no indigenous peoples living on the island, and the UK
represents the Territory internationally. A local government as
normally envisioned does not exist.[34] Around 1,700 armed services
personnel and 1,500 civilian contractors, mostly American, are
stationed on Diego Garcia.[35]
As of 2012[update], the islands have a transitory population of about
3,000 – 300 British government personnel and 2,700 American Army,
Navy and Air-Force personnel.
The Catholics are pastorally served by the Roman Catholic Diocese of
Port-Louis, which includes the BIOT.
Ecology[edit]
See also: Chagos Marine Protected Area
The Chagos forms a terrestrial ecoregion together with the Maldives
and the Lakshadweep.[36] The islands and their surrounding waters are
a vast oceanic Environment Preservation and Protection Zone (EPPZ)
(Fisheries Conservation and Management Zone (FCMZ) of 544,000 square
kilometres (210,000 sq mi)), an area twice the size of the
UK's land surface.
The deep oceanic waters around the Chagos Islands, out to the 200
nautical mile limit, include an exceptional diversity of undersea
geological features (such as 6000 m deep trenches, oceanic ridges, and
sea mounts). These areas almost certainly harbour many undiscovered
and specially adapted species. Although the deepwater habitats
surrounding the islands have not been explored or mapped in any
detail, work elsewhere in the world has shown that high physical
diversity of the sea floor is closely linked to a high diversity of
species.
The biodiversity of the Chagos archipelago and its surrounding waters
is one of the main reasons it is so special. As of 2010, 76 species
that call Chagos home were listed on the
IUCN Red ListIUCN Red List of Threatened
Species.[37]
Coral[edit]

The reefs host at least 371 species of coral including the endemic
brain coral Ctenella chagius. The coral cover is dense and healthy
even in deep water on the steep outer reef slopes. Thick stands of
branching staghorn coral (Acropora sp) protect the low-lying islands
from wave erosion. Despite the loss of much of the coral in a
bleaching event in 1998 the recovery in the Chagos has been remarkable
and overall coral cover increases year on year.[citation needed]
Fish[edit]
The reefs are also home to at least 784 species of fish that stay near
to the shores of the islands including the endemic Chagos clownfish
(Amphiprion chagosensis) and many of the larger wrasse and grouper
that have already been lost from over-fishing in other reefs in the
region.[citation needed]
As well as the healthy communities of reef fish there are significant
populations of pelagic fish such as manta rays (Manta birostris),
whale sharks, normal sharks, and tuna. Shark numbers have dramatically
declined as a result of illegal fishing boats that seek to remove
their fins and also as accidental by-catch in the two tuna fisheries
that used to operate seasonally in the Chagos.[citation needed]
Birds[edit]

Seventeen species of breeding seabirds can be found nesting in huge
colonies on many of the islands in the archipelago, and 10 of the
islands have received formal designation as Important Bird Areas, by
BirdLife International. This means that Chagos has the most diverse
breeding seabird community within this tropical region. Of particular
interest are the large colonies of sooty terns (Sterna fuscata), brown
and lesser noddies (
Anous stolidusAnous stolidus and Anous tenuirostris)
wedge-tailed shearwaters (Puffinus pacificus) and red-footed boobies
(Sula sula).[citation needed] Land bird fauna is poor and consists of
introduced species ans recent natural colonisers. Red fody had been
introduced and now widespread.
Mammals[edit]
Environments of Chagos
ArchipelagoArchipelago provides rich biodiversity and
support varieties of cetacean species within the vicinity,[38] mostly
the toothed whales such as sperm, pilot, orca, pseudo-orca, risso's
and other dolphins such as spinners.[39] Dugongs, being locally
extinct today, once thrived in the archipelago and the Sea Cow Island
was named after the presences of the species.[40][41] There are also
Donkeys roaming free on the island that were left behind when the
IloisIlois were relocated.
Turtles[edit]
The remote islands make perfect undisturbed nursery sites for nests of
green (Chelonia mydas) and hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) turtles.
The populations of both species in Chagos are of global significance
given the critically endangered status of hawksbills and the
endangered status of green turtles on the IUCN Red List. Chagos
turtles were heavily exploited during the previous two centuries, but
they and their habitats are now well protected by the administration
of the
British Indian Ocean TerritoryBritish Indian Ocean Territory and are recovering
well.[citation needed]
Crustaceans[edit]

CoconutCoconut crabs are the world's largest terrestrial arthropod and live
in one of the most undisturbed populations in the Chagos

The coconut crab (Birgus latro) is the world's largest terrestrial
arthropod,[42] reaching over one metre in leg span and 3.5-4 kilos in
weight. As a juvenile it behaves like a hermit crab and uses empty
coconut shells as protection but as an adult this giant crab climbs
trees and can crack through a coconut with its massive claws. Despite
its wide global distribution, it is rare in most of the areas it is
found. The coconut crabs on Chagos constitute one of the most
undisturbed populations in the world.[43][44] An important part of
their biology is the long distances their young can travel as larvae.
This means the Chagos coconut crabs are a vital source for
replenishing other over-exploited populations in the Indian Ocean
region.[citation needed]
Insects[edit]
Main article: List of Lepidoptera of the Chagos Archipelago
A total of 113 species of insect have been recorded from the Chagos
Islands.[citation needed]
Plants[edit]
The Chagos Islands have been colonised by plants since there was
sufficient soil to support them – probably less than 4,000
years. Seeds and spores arrived on the emerging islands by wind and
sea, or from passing seabirds. The native flora of the Chagos Islands
is thought to comprise forty-one species of flowering plants and four
ferns as well as a wide variety of mosses, liverworts, fungi and
cyanobacteria.[citation needed]
Today, the status of the Chagos Islands’ native flora depends very
much on past exploitation of particular islands. About 280 species of
flowering plants and ferns have now been recorded on the islands, but
this increase reflects the introduction of non-native plants by
humans, either accidentally or deliberately. Because some of these
non-native species have become invasive and pose a threat to the
native ecosystems, plans are being developed to control them. On some
islands, native forests were felled to plant coconut palms for the
production of copra oil. Other islands remain unspoiled and support a
wide range of habitats, including unique
PisoniaPisonia forests and large
clumps of the gigantic fish poison tree (Barringtonia asiatica).
Unspoiled islands provide us with the biological information that we
need to re-establish the native plant communities on heavily altered
islands. These efforts will ultimately help to improve the
biodiversity of the Chagos Islands.[citation needed]
Conservation efforts[edit]
Past[edit]

Successive UK governments, both Labour and Conservative, have
supported environmental conservation of the Chagos and have resisted
attempts to allow the exiled
ChagossiansChagossians to return. They have
committed to treat the whole area as a World Heritage site. In 2003,
the UK government established an Environment (Protection and
Preservation) Zone under Article 75 of the UN Convention on the Law of
the Sea. This zone extends 200 nautical miles from the islands. On
eastern Diego Garcia, the largest island of the Chagos and the site of
a UK–US military facility,[45] Britain has designated the very large
lagoon and the eastern arm of the atoll and seaward reefs as a
"wetland of international importance" under the Convention on Wetlands
of International Importance (the Ramsar Convention).[46]
Present[edit]
On 1 April 2010 Britain announced the creation of the Chagos Marine
Protected Area, the world's largest continuous marine protected
reserve with an area of 545,000 km2
(210,000 sq mi).[47][48][49]
This followed an effort led by The Chagos Environment Network,[50] a
collaboration of nine leading conservation and scientific
organisations seeking to protect the rich biodiversity of the Chagos
ArchipelagoArchipelago and its surrounding waters. The Chagos Environment Network
cites several reasons for supporting a protected area:
The UK government opened a three-month public consultation which ended
after the 5 March 2010 about conservation management of the Chagos
Islands and its surrounding waters.[51]
On 1 April 2010, the British government Cabinet established the Chagos
ArchipelagoArchipelago as the world's largest marine reserve. At
640,000 km2, it is larger than
FranceFrance or the US state of
California. It doubled the total area of environmental no-take zones
worldwide.[24] The protection of the marine reserve will be guaranteed
for the next five years thanks to the financial support of the
Bertarelli Foundation.[52] The setting up of the Marine Reserve would
appear to be an attempt to prevent any resettlement by the evicted
natives in the 1960s and 1970s. Leaked US Cables have shown the FCO
suggesting to the US counterparts that setting up a protected no-take
zone would make it "difficult, if not impossible" for the islanders to
return. The reserve was then created in 2010.[53]
Permanent Court of ArbitrationPermanent Court of Arbitration ruling[edit]
On 18 March 2015, the
Permanent Court of ArbitrationPermanent Court of Arbitration unanimously held
that the marine protected area (MPA) which the UK declared around the
Chagos
ArchipelagoArchipelago in April 2010 violates international law. Anerood
Jugnauth, Prime Minister of Mauritius, pointed out that it is the
first time that the UK's conduct with regard to the Chagos Archipelago
has been considered and condemned by any international court or
tribunal. He qualified the ruling as an important milestone in the
relentless struggle, at the political, diplomatic and other levels, of
successive Governments over the years for the effective exercise by
MauritiusMauritius of its sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago. The tribunal
considered in detail the undertakings given by the
United KingdomUnited Kingdom to
the Mauritian Ministers at the Lancaster House talks in September
1965. The UK had argued that those undertakings were not binding and
had no status in international law. The Tribunal firmly rejected that
argument, holding that those undertakings became a binding
international agreement upon the independence of Mauritius, and have
bound the UK ever since. It found that the UK's commitments towards
MauritiusMauritius in relation to fishing rights and oil and mineral rights in
the Chagos
ArchipelagoArchipelago are legally binding. The Tribunal also found
that the United Kingdom’s undertaking to return the Chagos
ArchipelagoArchipelago to
MauritiusMauritius when no longer needed for defence purposes is
legally binding. This establishes that, in international law,
MauritiusMauritius has real, firm and binding rights over the Chagos
Archipelago, and that the
United KingdomUnited Kingdom must respect those rights.
The Tribunal went on to hold that the
United KingdomUnited Kingdom had not respected
Mauritius’ binding legal rights over the Chagos Archipelago. It
considered the events from February 2009 to April 2010, during which
time the MPA proposal came into being and was then imposed on
Mauritius.[54][55]
WikiLeaksWikiLeaks cablegate disclosure[edit]
According to Wikileaks cablegate documents,[56] the UK proposed in
2009 that the BIOT become a "marine reserve". The summary paragraph of
the referenced diplomatic cable follows:

"HMG would like to establish a marine park or reserve providing
comprehensive environmental protection to the reefs and waters of the
British Indian Ocean TerritoryBritish Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), a senior Foreign and
Commonwealth Office (FCO) official informed Polcouns on May 12. The
official insisted that the establishment of a marine park—the
world's largest—would in no way impinge on USG use of the BIOT,
including Diego Garcia, for military purposes. He agreed that the UK
and U.S. should carefully negotiate the details of the marine reserve
to assure that U.S. interests were safeguarded and the strategic value
of BIOT was upheld. He said that the BIOT's former inhabitants would
find it difficult, if not impossible, to pursue their claim for
resettlement on the islands if the entire Chagos
ArchipelagoArchipelago were a
marine reserve."[57]

See also[edit]

List of islands in Chagos Archipelago
Chagos
ArchipelagoArchipelago sovereignty dispute
Great Chagos Bank
Chagos Marine Protected Area
Depopulation of Diego Garcia
Ile Takamaka
List of island countries and territories in the Indian Ocean
British
Indian OceanIndian Ocean Territory
Indian Ocean